A DollS House Essay

Culture, Roots, Identity




The two characters I chose to write about are Nora from A Doll’s House and Walter from A Raisin in the Sun. I am choosing these two characters for many reasons.   I feel that Nora’s culture and identity has been very much affected by the way Trovald’s culture made him act towards Nora.   Walter has been delayed in achieving his goals simply because his culture was not looked upon as being very established or prosperous.  
The play taking place during the 19 century, you will notice that being a home maker or stay home mom who takes care of the kids is very common.   Nora seems to be happy and playful, but does not have much if any knowledge of the world out side her house, or should we say outside of Torvald’s realm.   She does seem to have some worldly experience, and the small acts of rebellion in which she encounters, indicate that she is not as happy as you think.   This is all because of Torvald’s culture and how it affects her directly.   Torvald loves nothing as much as he loves having authority as a husband.   His culture is a culture of power.   He feels that he is on top of the world, with his new position and power at work, to being the husband; he feels that he is some type of god, in his mind.   Nora’s life was changed in many ways for many years, due to his tremendous self centered culture of insatiability, money, authority, upper class, and domination.  
Nora had to keep secrets from Torvald because if she didn’t, he would find out and scold her, even though some of the things she does are only to benefit him. Nora’s culture of being a wife and a morally and ethically ordinary person was altered in many ways.   At times she had to pretend that she was enjoying what she was doing.   As much as she loved to eat, some food were kept a secret from Torvald, simply because he did not want her eating certain foods, because he felt that they were unhealthy and would rot her teeth.   Torvald’s identity was only improved to a new all...